Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon
The men's marathon at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on 24 August at 7:30am in Beijing, ending in the Beijing National Stadium. The winner of the event was Samuel Wanjiru of Kenya, who set an Olympic record in the time of two hours, six minutes, and 32 seconds.
The qualifying standards were 2:15:00 and 2:18:00.
The Race
It began in the early morning instead of the traditional late at night start. Through 10k, a group of 8 was at front. They were all broken down to five at 20k. At the front was Eritrean Yonas Kifle, Ethiopian Deriba Merga, Kenya's Martin Lel and Sammy Wanjiru, and Moroccan Jaouad Gharib. over the next 10k Deriba Merga started to press the pace, dropping Lel and Kifle. Just after 30k, Sammy Wanjiru attacked Deriba Merga who would crack and fade out of the medals. Sammy Wanjiru continued to sustain his gap back to Gharib. Gharib slowly reeled the deficit back but Wanjiru won the gold medal in an Olympic record 2:06:32. Gharib got silver, and Tsegaye Kebede pulled himself into third to take the bronze.Records
Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:The following new Olympic record was set during this competition.
| Date | Event | Athlete | Time | OR | WR |
| 24 August | Samuel Kamau Wanjiru | 2:06:32 | OR |
Results
| Rank | Athlete | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| Samuel Kamau Wanjiru | 2:06:32 | |||
| Jaouad Gharib | 2:07:16 | |||
| Tsegay Kebede | 2:10:00 | |||
| Deriba Merga | 2:10:21 | |||
| Martin Lel | 2:10:24 | |||
| Viktor Röthlin | 2:10:35 | |||
| Gashaw Asfaw | 2:10:52 | |||
| Yared Asmerom | 2:11:11 | |||
| Dathan Ritzenhein | 2:11:59 | |||
| 10 | Ryan Hall | 2:12:33 | ||
| 11 | Mike Fokoroni | 2:13:17 | ||
| 12 | Stefano Baldini | 2:13:25 | ||
| 13 | Tsuyoshi Ogata | 2:13:26 | ||
| 14 | Grigoriy Andreyev | 2:13:33 | ||
| 15 | Ruggero Pertile | 2:13:39 | ||
| 16 | José Manuel Martínez | 2:14:00 | ||
| 17 | Francis Kirwa | 2:14:22 | ||
| 18 | Lee Myong-Seung | 2:14:37 | ||
| 19 | Janne Holmén | 2:14:44 | ||
| 20 | Abderrahim Goumri | 2:15:00 | ||
| 21 | Aleksey Sokolov | 2:15:57 | ||
| 22 | Brian Sell | 2:16:07 | ||
| 23 | Ottaviano Andriani | 2:16:10 | ||
| 24 | Dan Robinson | 2:16:14 | ||
| 25 | Deng Haiyang | 2:16:17 | ||
| 26 | Abderrahime Bouramdane | 2:17:42 | ||
| 27 | Vasyl Matviychuk | 2:17:50 | ||
| 28 | Lee Bong-Ju | 2:17:56 | ||
| 29 | Oleg Kulkov | 2:18:11 | ||
| 30 | Paulo Gomes | 2:18:15 | ||
| 31 | Alex Malinga | 2:18:26 | ||
| 32 | Carlos Cordero | 2:18:40 | ||
| 33 | Ri Kum-Song | 2:19:08 | ||
| 34 | Henryk Szost | 2:19:43 | ||
| 35 | José Amado García | 2:20:15 | ||
| 36 | Yonas Kifle | 2:20:23 | ||
| 37 | Nasar Sakar Saeed | 2:20:24 | ||
| 38 | José de Souza | 2:20:25 | ||
| 39 | Kamiel Maase | 2:20:30 | ||
| 40 | Pak Song-Chol | 2:21:16 | ||
| 41 | Iaroslav Musinschi | 2:21:18 | ||
| 42 | Kim Il-Nam | 2:21:51 | ||
| 43 | Juan Carlos Cardona | 2:21:57 | ||
| 44 | Hendrick Ramaala | 2:22:43 | ||
| 45 | Arjun Kumar Basnet | 2:23:09 | ||
| 46 | Hélder Ornelas | 2:23:20 | ||
| 47 | Procopio Franco | 2:23:24 | ||
| 48 | Nelson Cruz | 2:23:47 | ||
| 49 | Roberto Echeverría | 2:23:54 | ||
| 50 | Kim Yi-Yong | 2:23:57 | ||
| 51 | Li Zhuhong | 2:24:08 | ||
| 52 | Bat-Ochiryn Ser-Od | 2:24:19 | ||
| 53 | Norman Dlomo | 2:24:28 | ||
| 54 | Arkadiusz Sowa | 2:24:48 | ||
| 55 | Samson Ramadhani | 2:25:03 | ||
| 56 | Ndabili Bashingili | 2:25:11 | ||
| 57 | Simon Munyutu | 2:25:50 | ||
| 58 | Antoni Bernadó | 2:26:29 | ||
| 59 | Wu Wen-Chien | 2:26:55 | ||
| 60 | Lee Troop | 2:27:17 | ||
| 61 | Constantino León | 2:28:04 | ||
| 62 | Goran Stojiljković | 2:28:14 | ||
| 63 | Alfredo Arévalo | 2:28:26 | ||
| 64 | Yousf Othman Qader | 2:28:40 | ||
| 65 | Franklin Tenorio | 2:29:05 | ||
| 66 | Francisco Bautista | 2:29:28 | ||
| 67 | Roman Kejžar | 2:29:37 | ||
| 68 | Joachim Nshimirimana | 2:29:55 | ||
| 69 | Seteng Ayele | 2:30:07 | ||
| 70 | Takhir Mamashayev | 2:30:26 | ||
| 71 | Abdil Ceylan | 2:31:43 | ||
| 72 | José Ríos | 2:32:35 | ||
| 73 | Hem Bunting | 2:33:32 | ||
| 74 | Marcel Tschopp | 2:35:06 | ||
| 75 | Pavel Loskutov | 2:39:01 | ||
| 76 | Atsushi Sato | 2:41:08 | ||
| Tesfayohannes Mesfen | ||||
| Julio Rey | ||||
| Martin Fagan | ||||
| Al Mustafa Riyadh | ||||
| Ali Mabrouk El Zaidi | ||||
| Marilson dos Santos | ||||
| Luke Kibet Bowen | ||||
| Abdulhak Elgorche Zakaria | ||||
| Luis Fonseca | ||||
| Oleksandr Sitkovskyy | ||||
| Franck de Almeida | ||||
| Andrei Gordeev | ||||
| João N'Tyamba | ||||
| Moses Moeketsi Mosuhli | ||||
| Getuli Bayo | ||||
| Mubarak Hassan Shami | ||||
| Simon Tsotang Maine | ||||
| Clement Mabothile Lebopo | ||||
| Olexandr Kuzin | ||||
| Mohamed Ikoki Msandeki | ||||
| Satoshi Osaki | ||||
| Augusto Soares |